On February 19 and 20, CIAC’s Executive Vice President, Isabelle Des Chênes, participated in the Canadian Council of Minister’s of the Environment (CCME) workshop to develop a Canada-wide action plan for zero plastic waste. CIAC members NOVA Chemicals, Dow Canada, Inter Pipeline, Imperial and BASF were also in attendance. The goal of the workshop was to identify and prioritize government and sector actions to support the movement towards zero plastic waste.

discuss potential government and participant actions, priorities, roles and responsibilities

receive feedback from participants on their respective sectors’ readiness to achieve zero plastic waste and how governments can support their efforts to innovate and minimize waste.

The workshop brought together over 150 stakeholders from across the plastics value chain as well as collectors, recyclers and civil society. Discussion was focused on the first five key results areas of the CCME Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste: product design, single-use, collection systems, markets and recycling capacity.

Attendees delivered a series of recommendations to CCME including the need to focus on outcomes and performance rather than being prescriptive. There was also broad agreement that governments have a lot of policy and regulatory levers but it is important to leave room for industry to innovate. These recommendations will be reviewed over the coming days and considered in the action plan which will be delivered to CCME in June. Additional stakeholder consultation will take place via webinar in March. CIAC and its members continue to be actively involved.